<p>I plan on going to gradschool for science or engineering after figuring out what specific field I want to go into. I got into Caltech EA, and im waiting to hear from Stanford, Princeton, Berkeley, MIT, and umichigan. Since grad school is more important to me, I would rather go to a college that would give me a better shot at my top choice grad schools. Are there any other colleges besides the ones I listed that might prepare me for gradschool better than Caltech would?</p>
<p>I don't think an undergraduate school will affect your admission chances at grad school. I went to a not so big name undergraduate school and majored in Electrical Engineering, and I got into all the big name grad schools I applied to. I would go for the school I like the most, and not look at the name.</p>
<p>In science and engineering, you want to go somewhere that will let you do meaningful undergraduate research and let you have close contact with professors (preferably professors who are very well-respected in your field). Caltech is a great place to do that, as are the other schools you listed. I don't think any other schools would prepare you better than Caltech would, but the other schools you listed, plus maybe Harvey Mudd or Olin, would prepare you on about the same level.</p>
<p>I disagree that undergrad school has no impact on where you can get into graduate school. Going to a great undergrad school can give you quite a bit of GPA leeway when it comes time for graduate admissions, and of course it makes it more likely that your recommendations will be from well-known professors and that your research will be outstanding. I don't think it's necessary to go to a top undergrad school to get into a top grad program, but it's definitely a lot easier.</p>
<p>EDIT: And crazyglue, congrats on Caltech! I'm happy to hear that news.</p>
<p>I'm a grad student in engineering at Stanford and I can tell you that there are tons of people here who did their undergrad at Caltech. I think all the schools you listed will provide you with excellent preparation for grad programs, yet I'd recommend going to a smaller school like Caltech because you'll get more personal attention and have more opportunities in undergrad research - probably the most important experience to have for top grad programs. With this in mind another thing to consider is whether the school has good research and courses in areas most interesting to you. If you're not sure of your interests or Caltech does not have such resources, Stanford and MIT might be worth considering because they are more diverse than Caltech in the scope of research due to the larger size. </p>
<p>Anyway, congrats on getting into Caltech! I got rejected when I applied there for grad school.</p>
<p>Thanks, mollie and nowhere! I guess ill just have to wait for march and see where else I get in X-)</p>
<p>Hi you all, hm I didn't see Cornell being mentioned.. so in your opinion, how is the science and engineering undergrad program there?</p>
<p>I am just wondering because the undergrad admissions brochure said 20% of the science students at Cornell get to do research, has the 3rd most funding from US government, and my aluminus interviewer said profs there really enjoy interacting with students. Also this ranking
<a href="http://www.f1study.com/html/top_ranked_programs.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.f1study.com/html/top_ranked_programs.html</a>
put Cornell as 6th in both Engineering and Physics. </p>
<p>I just EDed and was accepted into Cornell's science program, so I am a little bit concerned about the quality of programs there. Thank you very much for your responses!</p>
<p>In my opinion, twenty percent of undergrads doing research -- that's a scary number. MIT has more than eighty percent of undergrads doing research, and I'm sure Caltech's percentage is similar.</p>
<p>Full time tuition for U-Florida is the cheapest in the nation and it is ranked higher than minnesots, duke, Rice, Penn, RPI, Virginia and Yale.</p>
<p>I don't know what the actual percentage is of Caltech undergrad's doing research, but I do know that it is fairly easy to find a position doing research. Most people that I know have done or are currently still doing research on campus.</p>
<p>Olin College= #1 undergrad engineering</p>
<p>^^ why would Olin be the best for undergrad engineering?</p>
<p>also, I think Cornell's 20% is alright. I know MIT has 80%, but the people there are crazy math and science geeks, it's natural for most of them to enjoy doing research. However, people at Cornell science might not be as deeply interested in research as the MIT people? So the difficulty of finding a research position might not affect the percentage That much?? hm that's just my reasoning though, not sure if it's valid or not. In addition, Cornell Engineering has 50% research percentage, so I guess it's a decent research university?</p>
<p>pleease give me more opinions.. If you guys all say Cornell is bad at research I must try my best to transfer to some other place...</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd.</p>
<p>Well, Cornell isn't a bad school; those numbers simply indicate that, faced with a decision between MIT and Cornell, MIT wins in the percent-of-students-doing-research category.</p>
<p>Olin was ranked number one on a ranking of undergrad schools' engineering programs. It gives each student a full ride and is devoted entirely to engineering-- not just from rankings, but also from word on the street, Olin is up there with/beyond MIT, CalTech, Stanford, etc. as far as an undergraduate education goes, though other top schools have grad schools, which= some connections and chances to take grad courses.</p>
<p>Anyhue, CalTech,Stanford, etc. may have a more prestigious name as far as telling your friends, but Olin is just as prestigious with grad schools</p>
<p>^^^Olin doesn't give "full rides", it gives "full tuition."</p>
<p>whoops, good catch. Sorry ,that's what I meant.</p>
<p>
though other top schools have grad schools, which= some connections and chances to take grad courses.
I just wouldn't discount this piece of information as meaningless. It can be extremely meaningful to have connections within a department, particularly when it comes to applying to grad school.</p>
<p>My fiance, for example, has a 3.2 GPA (including several C's and a D), and a 710Q GRE score. He's still going to get into MIT's aerospace engineering master's program (with an RAship), because the professors on the admissions committee know him and his work very well -- he's made quite a name for himself in the department, and the head of the admissions committee is a very big fan of his excellent senior project. He would not have been well-served by going somewhere else for undergrad.</p>
<p>"Well, Cornell isn't a bad school; those numbers simply indicate that, faced with a decision between MIT and Cornell, MIT wins in the percent-of-students-doing-research category."</p>
<p>For undergrad? I'm not so sure. Compare that with 100% of HMC students that are required to do real research as a graduation requirement. It is called clinic,</p>
<p>Double true and good emphasis, Molliebatmit. My dad went to UVM, did some research with the graduate department in his field and ended up getting all sorts of connections through that research. Eventually he was recruited to the Stanford PhD program with an RAship by a Stanford professor because he was familiar with my father's work and was a fan of his attitude, work ethic, smarts, etc. </p>
<p>Anyhue, the point of this post is not necessarily that it's the school you go to that matters (which I believe can be a big plus, as is evident in molliebat's last post), it's that connections are HUGE when it comes to grad school. So, the easier it is to make them, the better.</p>
<p>Though I still stand by my opinion of Olin being a top-notch engineering undergrad =).</p>
<p>For sure. And I think Olin's a great place. I just feel like it's necessary to remind everyone sometimes that, just as very few people go to LACs merely because they disdain prestige, very few people go to MIT/Caltech/Stanford just because they're prestige-whores.</p>
<p>There are good reasons to go to MIT/Caltech/Stanford, just as there are good reasons to go to Olin/HMC. The relative weight of those factors is different to different students.</p>